130 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Fkb. 15. 



a matter of necessity. In the New York mar- 

 kets, and in Albany, I found that barrels and 

 kegs were preferred by all the commission men 

 and buyers. Two square cans in a box, they 

 claimed, were heavy and unwieldy; and then if 

 they were dropped, a bad leak was the result. 

 One commission man, I remember, told me he 

 would not have a square can of honey in his 

 place if he could help it; that there was no 

 reason for kegs and l^arrels leaking if the pro- 

 ducer only understood his business, and that, in 

 his opinion, it would not take them very long 

 to learn after they had shipped honey once or 

 twice, and had about half of it lost by leakage. 



I suppose much of the trouble from leaky 

 barrels is owing to the fact that second-hand 

 molasses-barrels, none too good in the first 

 place, were used. The Frances, you see, buy 

 new barrels and make sure that they get good 

 ones at that. 



This article will be seasonable, inasmuch as 

 it is the proper time now to procure your bar- 

 rels for next year. They should be put up in a 

 dry room, where they can season thoroughly.— 

 Ed.] 



m — I ^ 



CALIFORNIA ECHOES. 



By Ramhler. 



Great Scott! I have just learned that there 

 are 191,988 bachelors in California. 



It is a real pleasure to receive the first num- 

 bers of the bee-journals for the new year. All 

 show a progressive spirit, which is a sure indi- 

 cation that the industry Is marching on. Glory 

 hallelujah ! 



Hum! pull the cobwebs outen your ears, and 

 listen. The word bee-paradise is floating in the 

 air. Mr. Blankton, of Beeville, Tex., in A. B. 

 J. , says, "This is, no doubt, the bee-paradise of 

 this continent." 



Some time ago Dr. Miller wondered or specu- 

 lated why the queen-bee has a curved sting. 

 Did you ever see a queen-bee sting a rival in 

 her cell? She clings around the cell; and the 

 sting, following the curve of the body, strikes 

 the rival in the thorax. Of course, the sting 

 has to be curved to " get there." 



That was real mean for Mr. ThMlman to say 

 that our beautiful white-sage honey tasted of 

 alkali. Why, bless you, sir, our sages do not 

 grow in the alkali lands. We have but little 

 alkali lands here anyway; and where there is 

 much alkali the ground is barren. No, sir; you 

 will have to taste again; then taste of that 

 basswood honey, and see how minty it tastes. 



In A. B. J., Bee-master says: " A narrow belt 

 of the Dominion of Canada, extending from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific, has no superior as a 

 honey field anywhere in the wide, wide world." 

 Gallup says, " So California is not only the bee- 

 keeper's but the old man's paradise " — enough 

 paradise for two. Paradise is also found in 

 Florida, Cuba, heavenly Topolobampo, and 

 Australia. So paradise seems to depend upon 

 how much the love of one's locality is diffused 

 over the cerebrum. It is clearly a brain trou- 

 ble. Dr. Peiro, what shall we do with these 

 fellows? 



I note that Dr. Miller is troubled about stop- 

 ping cracks in boxes. Beeswax, if run into cor- 

 ners of boxes, is sure to scale and crack. Try 

 paraflfine. It is free from the habit of cracking, 

 and sticks well. Quite a loose-jointed box can 

 be made water-tight by fitting into it a piece of 

 canton flannel; but before fastening it in, satu- 

 rate it thoroughly with hot paraffine, then se- 

 cure with small tacks, and your box is water- 

 tight. That is the way I make cheap trays for 

 photographic work. 



There, now. those Canadians are trying to get 

 ahead of me on that magic-lantern business. 

 I had that very idea maturing and experiment- 

 ing on slides, when they popped up with their 

 lantern plans. Well, this is a big country, and I 

 think there is room for several operators of the 

 slide; and there is a splendid opportunity In 

 this direction for the proper education of the 

 public in relation to bee-keeping, methods of 

 work in the apiary, the opening flowers, and a 

 hundred interesting things. I wonder if we 

 cannot get up a bee photographic magic-lan- 

 tern exchange club. What do you say, friends, 

 in Canada? 



I notice, Mr. Editor, that your proof-reader, 

 or some one else, in seeking to correct my pro- 

 nunciation of Spanish names, is making some 

 mistakes that will, of course, fall upon my 

 head. The Spanish as spoken here is not the 

 pure Castilian. It is corrupted more or less; 

 and when I give the pronunciation after a word 

 I give it just as I have heard it spoken scores 

 of times. For instance, in Ramble 12.3 I used 

 the name Jolon, a town. It is pronounced Ho- 

 lon(% and your interpreter put it Jo—, which is 

 wrong, as he of course knows, for all Spanish 

 words having a J in them are pronounced as an 

 H; as, San Jose (riosay), or San Joaquin (Hoa- 

 quien), or, as it is popularly pronounced, here, 

 Wauk-een. Then in the same ramble Gonsales 

 is fixed over into goan-saw-lais. Now, that is 

 near the Castilian pronunciation, but here it is 

 cut short, and is pronounced as gun, or gu-saw- 

 lis. I mention these words, and especially "Jo- 

 lon," for California readers will notice the 

 wrong rendering, and accuse me of being a ten- 

 derfoot. 



[Regarding the Spanish words, it was a typo- 

 graphical error that we did not represent Jolon 

 as if pronounced Ho-?o?ie, as a Spanish J is a 

 Yankee II; but Rambler makes three syllables 

 of it, as if pronounced Ho-lo-?iaiy. In this re- 

 gard we fear he stands " H'lone." We believe 

 that even those who speak Spanish with a 

 brogue would regard the figured pronunciation 

 of the other words as correct, from the stand- 

 ard of the Spanish Academy. The trouble 

 was, if any, the pronunciation was too exact. 

 We have always tried, and shall continue to do 

 so, to give Rambler's exact meaning; and in 

 the case in question we are glad we got it too 

 good rather than too bad. So far we have fol- 

 lowed Rambler very closely in his travels, by 

 means of a map, lexicon, and Spanish books, 

 and have tried to verify every word printed. — 

 Proof-readkr.] 



